US draws up plans for Saddam's exile

The United States and a number of Arab countries have drawn up plans for the exile of Saddam Hussein to a neutral country to avoid an invasion that could lead to massive number of civilian deaths.

Planners in the Near East division of the US State Department have looked at various scenarios under which the Iraqi president would cede power to a democratic government and then leave the country. President Saddam has angrily dismissed such suggestions – made to him by third parties.

"We have to look at all scenarios," a senior State Department official told The Independent on Sunday. "We are still trying to sort it out." The official said US policy calls for President Saddam to be "brought to justice". But he added that if the exile option could be shown to prevent a massive loss of civilian life as the result of a military operation, and that power was ceded to a truly alternative government, it would be considered. "There would have to be real change. He could not simply hand over to his son."

Which countries would take President Saddam is unclear. One US source suggested Algeria or Mauritania might be options. The source added: "North Korea and China might also take him. China might do it just to piss us off."

The Iraqi leader has said he would not agree to any such plan. It is understood that when Qatar's foreign minister, Hamad al-Thani, raised the prospect during a meeting in August, President Saddam angrily asked him to leave. "We know the meeting took place, but we don't know what happened in the room," said a spokesman for Qatar's embassy in Washington.

Disclosure of the exile plan came as Baghdad rejected the draft UN resolution for which Britain and the US are seeking international backing. Senior officials from the two countries are in Moscow after visiting Paris, looking for approval for a resolution that would set a timetable for the return of weapons inspectors and make clear that military force would be used if Iraq did not fully comply with the inspectors' demands.

Iraq's vice-president and deputy prime minister, Taha Yassin Ramadan, said yesterday: "We have made our position very clear. We have invited back the inspectors under existing UN resolutions. We shall not accept additional proposals which have the aims of harming Iraq and provoking a war."

Iraqi officials are due to visit Moscow in the next few days in an attempt to ensure President Vladimir Putin and, through him, France, continue to oppose the new resolution. Officials said they were pressing ahead with their meeting with the UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, scheduled for tomorrow.

Diplomatic sources said Vice-President Ramadan and Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, believe privately that war is now inevitable and it is only a matter of time before the US and Britain attack.